MOVIE REVIEW: AND THE BAND PLAYED ON 2
Movie Review: “And the Band Played On”
The film, ‘And the Band Played’ is an investigative reporting by Randy Shilts within San
Francisco Chronicles covering the growth rate of the epidemic of AIDS from 1982. It was during
the 1st year of the pandemic when various scientists and scholars had an interest in establishing
the causes of the disease. Such scientists like Dr. Don Francis, an immunologist joined the
Centers for Disease Control (CDC) to combine efforts and determine the cause of the epidemic.
It was after combining efforts and research by the CDC and several doctors that the sexually
transmitted pathogen caused that the AIDS virus was proven. Long before, it was difficult to
convince CDC that a pathogen which was transmitted sexually caused symptoms related to
AIDS. There was a challenge to establish this cause before due to the large bureaucracies and a
government that seemed not to care about the disease. AIDS was also believed to be a disease for
gays. The government, by then, Reagan’s Administration also failed to provide funding research
for AIDS. These factors acted as obstacles in the way of research.
Several factors made it so hard to establish that the AIDS virus caused the epidemic.
These factors include the fact and perspective that AIDS was a disease for gays, lack of proper
funding from a government for research which never cared about the disease. However, the virus
was eventually discovered through the mysterious illness of Danish Physician who was working
in Africa and the death of the Rock Hudson in 1985. Dr. Robert Gallo, who was an American
virologist, eventually identified the virus. However, Dr. Luc Montagnier and his counterpart, Dr.
Robert Gallo, engage in a bitter battle over the credit of discovering the AIDS virus. Each of
them wanted to be recognized as the discoverer of the virus.
According to Randy Shilts, the history of the disease goes a long way from the
misconception that it is a disease of the gays to the evident truth. Initially, even the government
